OysterLabs is seeking a Technical Lead for its New York office. Must be a multi-skilled technical wizard who helps to move forward the company flagship Mobile Marketing Analytics platform as well as other company initiatives.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Assist Product Management with defining product technical and business requirements

Work with offshore teams on product implementation, including hands-on development within agile/scrum process framework

Oversee quality of the offshore team deliverables

Work with DevOps to refine CI and Deployment processes

QUALIFICATIONS

At least 5 years of hands-on production-quality software development experience

PHP, Symfony2, MongoDB

Experience with one of the mobile platforms (iOS, Android)

AWS

TDD

Understanding of Agile processes

NICE TO HAVE

Big Data experience

Hadoop

OysterLabs is an equal opportunity employer (EOE).

ABOUT

OysterLabs is a mobile technology company. We create special mobile app experiences for our customers and have just launched a proprietary SaaS based Analytics, CRM and Messaging platform for mobile apps, called OysterLabs AQUA™. We define the way brands and companies build valuable relationships with their mobile audience as well as understand the data that can dictate future mobile strategy and iterations of development.

3 Ways to Immediately Improve Your Mobile Strategy

1) EMBRACE YOUR CORE MARKET, THEN ITERATE

When you are creating your app you need to think about the simplest set of features to meet the goal first. It’s typically called your MVP - your minimum viable product. You can have a big vision but if you don’t get the first step right you can’t take the next step. Focus on your first target user and a specific set of needs. Get it right. Then expand. If the experience seems to get heavy and confusing you probably need to stop pushing in new features. Take a breath. Decide whether you should add more or improve what you have. Also consider if you are trying to be all things for all people you may end up being too confusing for anyone.

User experience is a critical aspect of mHealth development that involves iteration, but it’s amazing how often this is overlooked or under emphasized. If you designed your app 2 years ago and it is still sitting out there it will look stale. UX and design approaches are rapidly evolving, so you have to evolve with the market. One great approach is to think about what apps are working well for your audience and be inspired by them. Likely these are not health apps but they are apps used by your target audience. Put those inspirations on your wall constantly and discuss them when you speak to your experience designers. You can always steal a little inspiration from everyone and then make it your own as you iterate your experience.

2) PLAN YOUR INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGY EARLY

In healthcare, you have data and infrastructure requirements to consider that are unique to this industry. Data integration, management and protection are important factors for many mHealth apps. Are you creating or accessing Protected Health Information (PHI)? Do you need a HIPAA-Compliant data solution? Do you need to integrate with new data sources for each deployment, or merge data for analysis?

Many apps create their own custom data, but eventually want to merge this data with other sources over time. These considerations will define what infrastructure you need to support your business, then you can decide what to build vs. where you can leverage third party platforms. But the key is to have a data architecture conversation early, so the decisions you make now will give you what you need in the future.

3) ENGAGE. THEN RE-ENGAGE.

Notifications have become a communications layer that adds seamless value to a mobile experience. You want to think about segmentation early, and how you want to message those users after you got them to download your app. Most apps will not be used after one month. Bring them back with a smart campaign that hits them with an “oh yeah I should check that out again.” The more your data can be used to personalize the message the more impact you’ll have. Apple Watch is a great example of how extended notifications are evolving but for most people starting simple is the best approach.

Overall your mobile experience should be unique, and meet the goals you have set for your market. In mHealth the opportunity for impact is especially high, and if you get your experience and your infrastructure right, you can expand quickly.

Your company (a startup, small company, or a division of a larger company) decided to build a new software product. You are in charge. What’s your first move?

Naturally (of course!), you would want to use Agile best practices to manage the process. But ask yourself — do you have enough information to begin? Where would you start? May be start with user stories?

While Agile excels at building software, such processes as companywide product planning and coordination are not directly addressed in the methodology.

As a result, “simple” questions like “How long will it take to build the product” or “What functionality will be implemented in Release 1” often answered by long explanation on how Agile works without providing specifics needed for other branches of the company. Which of course is not particularly helpful for Marketing and Sales as they prepare for product marketing campaigns and launch!

Here’s approach that worked for me in the past to ease at least some of these challenges.

The idea is to start the new product development with the lightweight Planning phase (Agile Product Planning). This phase is dedicated to achieving the following main goals:

Ensuring different parts of the company is on the same page early in the cycle in terms of the product direction and expected functionality

Formulating product vision to ensure all follow up decisions are made with this vision in mind

Outlining constraints such as business milestones and resourcing to ensure appropriate scoping and prioritization

Once the product planning is completed the regular Agile process can start with user stories breakdown, UX work, and technical design/development.

Let’s dig deeper into the Planning phase.

To make product planning more reliable it is generally a good idea to start by forming a virtual Product Planning team. The team ideally should include representatives from various departments (think Sales, Marketing, Development, and IT working together!).

Try to keep the team small — no more than 6 team members. Oh, and do not forget the Scrum Master — somebody who will coordinate the team’s planning effort.

Once the team is formed, the planning can start.

Here are the main points the Product Planning Team should address.

1. What specific problem(s) the product will solve?

Without clear and specific single sentence answer to this question you may have trouble explaining the product value to stakeholders, clients, to your own team, and to yourself!

Remember — you need to excite people about the new product, and having a good answer to this question is a great first step.

2. Who will buy the product?

A good answer to this question is extremely important for 3 reasons:

It forces the team to think beyond the technological coolness of your solution

It allows your business to start targeting future product buyers in parallel with product development.

It may affect release scope and prioritization if the product users are not the same as product buyers (something that’s quite possible in enterprise scenarios).

3. Who will use the product?

Knowing who your users are (including their roles) will help you later on with much higher quality user stories. On the business side it will drive marketing and sales targeting.

Remember that buyers and users are not always the same — it is important to understand both.

4. What are the milestones?

Often product must be completed before a well known business deadline, such as a conference where you’d like to announce it, a meeting with investors, a launch by your competitors, etc. Knowing the deadline ahead of time might influence how user stories are prioritized to ensure high quality delivery for that date.

5. Release 1 Functional Outline

Before Product team starts working on user stories, it is important to write down (and accept within Product Planning Team!) a high level Functional Outline of the first version of the product — something you can easily share with stakeholders and customers, and something that sets a common ground for the product within the company.

The outline does not need to be extensive (couple of paragraphs or several bullet points should do it). If written well, it will translate almost directly sentence-by-sentence to user stories later on.

6. Release 1 Estimate

This point is to some extent anti-Agile in nature, however in many cases it cannot be avoided in real life.

Guess what will be the first question from stakeholders once the product functionality is understood. If you guessed “When is it going to be ready” — you are right!

Unfortunately in some cases the estimate is required even before user stories are written and estimated by the development team.

To understand a magnitude of work ahead, it is generally good idea to include “Rough Order of Magnitude” estimate (ROM) in your planning cycle. ROM estimate assumes very low precision (+- 50%), but it still provides high level understanding of the product development effort: are we talking weeks, months, or years to deliver the product.

The typical practice to come up with ROM estimate:

Use Release 1 Functional Outline as a starting point.

Ask your development team how long it would take them to develop such solution. To make things interesting feel free to cap the time for this answer to 30 mins

Multiply the number developers provided by the “Team Optimism Level” (developers tend to underestimate effort 2–3 times in most cases)

The resulting number is the ROM estimate you can share with stakeholders.

Important note — ensure you make it very clear (in writing!) the estimates are preliminary and actual development may take longer or shorter depending on specifics and complexity of the requirements.

7. Beyond Release 1

Understanding what lies beyond Release 1 will help with technical decisions your team making and will reduce future refactoring. Having couple of paragraphs or several bullet points describing post-Release 1 product direction should be sufficient at this stage.

Later on it could be converted to full scale Product Roadmap!

8. Define Technology Stack

Now when developers understand the high level requirements as well as the time constraints, they can come up with a technology stack that fits the requirements and the team expertise.

9. Resourcing

Knowing the ROM estimates, deadlines, and technology stack allows to plan development resources required to deliver the product.

That’s it!

The whole process of planning may take from several hours to several days, depending on the complexity of the new product, how well the product idea is formulated, and how aligned the team members are.

It is generally good idea to use agile prioritization techniques to avoid an impasse between the Product Planning team members. See my article on Ideas Prioritization — Agile Approach as one of such examples.

Join us in designing the future of mobile products and platforms! Headquartered in New York City, we’re a passionate team working closely with exciting startups and brands to deliver strategic mobile offerings.

OysterLabs is seeking a skilled Mobile UX Designer to work with clients and internal teams to meet the demands of our growing client base. Must have mobile app design experience and have a deep understanding of UX design. The ideal candidate will be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment and have a basic understanding of Agile / Scrum methodology.

Mobile Designers at OysterLabs will work directly with our Creative Director to create modern, polished experiences for our clients.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Work directly with Creative Director and clients to ideate and define design vision and design mobile app interfaces.

Help define the core product vision, goals, functionality and requirements.

Collaborate with engineers to reach the best possible version of a feature or product to bring to market.

Create use cases that deliver on the user experience.

Prioritize development activities with engineering teams to deliver iterative design.

QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum 2 years of mobile app design experience.

Understanding of the latest iOS and Android design requirements.

Experience with agile methodologies.

Proven track record of leading and delivering design of mobile products.

Strong leadership, communication and presentation skills.

Comfortable working direct with clients and understand additional business opportunities.

Experience using JIRA or similar project management software.

Strong analytical problem solving and decision making skills.

Demonstrated thoroughness, follow-up and attention to detail.

BA/BS Degree.

When submitting your resume, please include link to your portfolio.

OysterLabs is an equal opportunity employer (EOE).

ABOUT

OysterLabs is a mobile technology company. We create special mobile app experiences for our customers and have just launched a proprietary SaaS based Analytics, CRM and Messaging platform for mobile apps, called OysterLabs AQUA™. We define the way brands and companies build valuable relationships with their mobile audience as well as understand the data that can dictate future mobile strategy and iterations of development.

Join us in building the future of mobile products and platforms! Headquartered in New York City, we’re a passionate team working closely with exciting startups and brands to deliver strategic mobile offerings.

OysterLabs is seeking a Mobile Product Manager to work with clients and internal teams to meet the demands of our growing client base. Must be a multi-skilled leader who helps project teams define and deliver the right mobile solutions for our clients. We work collaboratively with internal teams, developers, UX/designers and clients on innovative mobile projects. Must be able to drive the entire development lifecycle and lead product evolution from concept to launch.

Successful Product Managers at OysterLabs establish a shared vision by understanding the goals of client’s business requirements and can prioritize tasks to successfully launch their mobile products. They have a natural ability to simplify complex and technical concepts and to plan, prioritize and seamlessly integrate all moving parts in order to release high-quality products. They bring a strategic perspective to projects as well as contribute hands-on in order to get things done.

This person will be a key hire in the evolution of OysterLabs and our bright future.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Work directly with clients to define and manage product roadmaps to realize business goals and strategies for mobile app and technology businesses.

Help define the core product vision, goals, functionality and requirements.

Collaborate with user experience experts, designers, engineers and clients to reach the best possible version of a feature or product to bring to market.

OysterLabs is a mobile technology company. We create special mobile app experiences for our customers and have just launched a proprietary SaaS based Analytics, CRM and Messaging platform for mobile apps, called OysterLabs AQUA™. We define the way brands and companies build valuable relationships with their mobile audience as well as understand the data that can dictate future mobile strategy and iterations of development.

First there was WoW, then there was Second Life, now there’s Oculus. Exploratory worlds can be a place of escape, but also a place of great inspiration. When Linden Lab created the platform for Second Life, it was exactly that, a platform on which to build - this is a great study of where a passionate audience can take a platform. Literally building out this virtual world brick by brick, the documentary Life 2.0 takes you inside this world in which many people live many hours of their real lives.

I’ve been fascinated about imaginative places and dreams since I was a young girl. When a particularly exciting dream would stick with me, I would draw it out using my impressive box of 64 Crayolas. Today, one of my obsessions is the SHADOW project imagined by Hunter Lee Soik- amongst my favorite kickstarters yet. The app currently in development will slowly awake a user and allow them to journal their dreams and share with a community of others. This idea of cataloging what can be a forgettable mind state is a step towards connecting our unconscious minds with our conscious selves.

Visual as the MediumThrough the evolution of technology, gaming and interactivity, we’ve matured from initially web-based platforms, to now mobile - and visual will be the next medium which developers and dreamers alike will build upon.

During Facebook’s shareholders meeting post-announcement of acquiring Oculus Rift, Mark Zuckerberg said three key points that stuck with me.

“Today social is about sharing moments. Tomorrow, it will be about sharing experiences.”

“Visual will be the next big computing platform”

“New platforms roll in every 10-15 yrs, now it’s mobile but augmented vision is next”

Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus VR said “We’re teaming up with Facebookto invent the future.”

In today’s DeanBeat, Dean Takahashi wrote an insightful piece on what the acquisition means for platform advancement:

So Let’s Dream a LittleThere are many opinions about what a platform like Oculus could evolve into, as a fan and dreamer, I’ve imagined a few scenarios…

Enabling Time TravelImagine revisiting your childhood home using Google street view and having a media catalog that you could attach to the experience to pull in family videos and photographs - flipping through a digital album in the foreground. Or re-live a special moment in time (reunions, birthdays, wedding day, graduations, celebrations), tools like Oculus will not only help share experiences, but re-live them - even more-so when solo-lens capture tools are used (e.g. head-mounted and low-profile devices such as SoloShot, Go Pro, Google Glass, Narrative).

Driving Education & ConnectionAugmented reality as an educational tool could be used to virtually teleport users to other places in the world. Similar to the power of reach that online education communities like Skillshare have, Oculus will inspire a community of teachers. Lately I’ve been watching a lot of wildlife and space travel documentaries. Imagine feeling as though you’re standing in the grasslands of Africa, with exquisite wildlife all around you. Animal sanctuaries could help drive awareness and education. Agriculturists and community activists could share their passions and purpose. Imagine NASA collaborates with a Planetarium to develop films that place you in the seat of an astronaut. How rad would that be?!

Commerce in the HomeThanks to digital, the disruption of retail over the last five years has challenged brands to step up their game. Interactive tools like Oculus could fundamentally re-imagine everything from the shopping process to market week trade shows. And of course, to take a note out of Cher’s enviable closet from Clueless, imagine shopping aggregators such as ShopStyle, Google Shopping and Polyvore integrating into Oculus, so select pieces from your favorite designers or brand could be tried on - an updated take on the paper doll.

Designing the UnseenFor architects, urban planners, and landscape and interior designers, imagine virtually walking through your floorplan or urban environment - virtually concepting design directions as though you’re in a showroom selecting swatches and planning out the space. Google Maps is in process of mapping interiors of select buildings - by hacking into that API you could tour other famous buildings by greats Calatrava, Gehry and Fosterto gain inspiration for designing your space.

Inspiring Content CreatorsTake creative communities such as Vimeo, VHX.tv and Youtube to the next level with first-person point-of-view filming. See what musicians are up to backstage, get to know upcoming artists through creative series like Samantha Katz’s Gallery Glass - which used Google Glass to have a first person point-of-view of touring an artist’ gallery and process or explore a designers studio and browse a collection before it launches on the runway. The possibilities are endless.

Trying Something NewAs a life-long skier and Coloradoan, I miss the slopes and don’t get in as much powder time as I would like living in New York. Imagine an immersive pod that serves up weather conditions similar to your favorite adventure sport location. Pop on Oculus, enter the pod, and get a rush of cold air to further dive you into the experience of flying down a double-diamond on the best powder day of the season. Skydive (and underwater) lovers could experience diving around the world and seeing the earth from above while feeling like a bird - a feeling I highly recommend everyone experience at least once in their lifetime.

Final ThoughtsThose weary of “this technology age” may be turned off by yet another device that seemingly detaches us from real-life. But I argue that by expanding our individual worlds through technology, it actually unites us more than divides. I believe creating new possibilities of interacting with the world around us will inspire great innovations, young and old.

Banner ads, coupons, and interstitials are becoming a thing of the past for many leading mobile brands. At this week’s Shopper Marketing Summit outside Chicago, Manuel Rosso, CEO of Food on the Table, said, “Nobody clicks on mobile banners, it’s a terrible message medium.”

Banners were once touted as a key tool for app promotion and monetization because they were easy to set up and wouldn’t distract users from the app they were using. But with newer apps that meticulously utilize every inch of screen real estate, many app developers are finding that sacrificing the lower-third (or full screen) of their app to an advertiser disrupts the experience for their users.

In addition, brand experts point out that banners (and coupons) tend to be poor drivers of brand engagement and loyalty. While they increase the brand’s presence, tappable in-app ads tend to encourage the wrong type of consumer behavior. Bryan Leach, founder and CEO of Ibotta, said, “Digitizing coupons is a poor investment” because “it reinforces a transactional relationship with the consumer.” It’s better to encourage consumers to engage than to transact.

The hard part for developers and brands is that creating engagement doesn’t follow a simple formula. Some brands have sought to tell stories or build games in order to encourage brand loyalty and trigger rewards. Target and Starbucks are two such brands that have steered their mobile apps towards engagement and rewards, and away from transaction (although they both offer in-app transaction capabilities). Both have seen significant increases in mobile adoption and sales.

Messaging is still an important part of the mobile brand toolset, but it needs to be selective, relevant, and timely. Selectivity means messages need to be delivered for special purposes, such as to announce a sale or event. Relevance means messages need to be sent to the right audience segments, i.e. the ones most likely to be interested in the content of the message. Timeliness means that messages need to be delivered at times when users are most likely to read them and take action.

Following these three rules will help any brand put together an effective mobile messaging strategy, but this is still secondary to the function of the app itself. Brands that want to benefit from mobile need to develop concepts about how to offer non-transactional value to customers. Whether this is done through storytelling, design, user experience, gameification, rewards, or some other method doesn’t matter so much; what matters is that the mobile app gets users interested in the brand apart from merely offering ways to buy. Interest breeds brand appreciation, which increases the likelihood of consumers to transact, which in turn helps to boost sales.

At CES 2014, 40 percent more floor space has been dedicated to digital health exhibitors this year than in 2013. This includes many sensor tech companies that are acquiring data that describes our digital selves. For example, LG Electronics is introducing a fitness band, Reebok is showcasing a skullcap with sensors, and startups like Lively and ZamZee are releasing solutions for the elderly and for children respectively. This quantified-self movement has been heavily funded but is really still in its infancy.

As the technology has moved toward commoditization, it will be increasingly included in devices that we already own. For example, both Apple and Samsung have included technology into their latest phones that includes advanced motion sensing technology, including a custom app by Samsung “S Health”. Apple even has a new patent on an integrated heart rate sensor (read more here). Apple’s M7 co-processor allows efficient motion detection and is now integrated with the FitBit mobile app removing the need for a special purpose device – a smart move. Why?

Because the future won’t necessarily be about winning on the device side, it will be about how you use the enormous amount of data that is being generated by people to describe themselves in new ways.

Individuals will want help managing the data, providing access to their data and using it for custom applications that align to their specific needs. This is where healthcare industry players should focus their energy. How are you planning to plug in to this ecosystem? What data will you help your customers acquire or will you ask them for access to their data as it is generated so that you can provide them a valuable service?

For pharma, I’m enthusiastic about both the creation of mobile services that utilize these new data acquisition technologies, and also about the use of this aggregate data to unlock new knowledge that aligns R&D and marketing goals. For care providers, new data sources give physicians a new view into cause and effect, and for insurers and employers there can be tremendous gains in enhancing wellness programs and aligning incentives to healthier behaviors.

On my end, I’m excited to be involved with two great businesses that are taking advantage of this opportunity today. Mana Health is a rapidly growing company that is taking as inputs these many new data points and making sense of it all to patients and care providers. OysterLabs is a mobile technology company whose AQUA platform is enabling marketers to use the data generated by mobile app users at the edge to improve audience engagement. In short, I for one am incredibly excited for this storm of data to be here and for all the opportunity it creates, and luckily I brought my umbrella.

In the past few years, mobile payment apps have flooded the market, with some dominating in specific sections. Apps like PayPal, Square, LevelUp, Chirpify and Dwolla have all taken their place within the industry. For my group of friends, our go to payment app is Venmo.

Behind Starbucks, Venmo is the second most used payment app, racking up an average of seven payments per month. Among age groups, Venmo users comprise the youngest category (18-24-year-olds). Young people love Venmo. It makes paying someone fun and simple. Business Insider recently reported that Venmo is now officially a verb. “Like Google, Xerox, and Facebook, mobile payments startup Venmo has already achieved that rare and highly coveted milestone in the product services world: its name has been verbalized.” I’ve heard my own friends say to each other, “Dude, just Venmo me.” Venmo has revolutionized mobile payments, making it a social interaction rather than a formal and tedious exercise.

There’s instant gratification about being paid right back. Gone are the days of worrying about giving your friend change for a $20 or them paying you back in drinks the next time you go out. You literally can get the exact amount you need within seconds of paying the bill. If you have a credit/debit card and a smartphone, there’s no excuse not to have it … unless you have no friends : (

Pandora revolutionized the music industry by offering on-demand, user-customizable radio stations and an enormous library of music on desktop and mobile. Since Pandora, the industry has seen the rise of several niche services that make it even easier for users to discover new music, personalize their listening, and share their favorite songs and artists with friends. These 6 apps are essential for music listeners who are looking to expand their horizons beyond Pandora.

Shazam lets users quickly identify songs, commercials, TV shows, and more by pointing their mobile device towards the audio source and tapping a button on the app to record and process an audio clip. Once the app has identified the media, users can navigate to the song or video on YouTube or a 30-second iTunes preview. In addition to being a great organic discovery service for users, Shazam has become an important tool for brands. By integrating Shazam into radio and TV ads, brands have been able to re-direct mobile users to custom brand experiences on their devices, which helps with migrating analog audiences to mobile.

Beats Music has a stylish, sophisticated user interface in line with its coveted audio accessories, and a library of more than 20 million tracks and curated playlists from audio experts like Pitchfork and XXL Magazine. Beats emphasizes personalization above all else. The app offers “The Sentence” — a feature that requests a user’s location, mood, and current activity in order to select the ideal song for the moment.

Of the many music apps available today, Songza may offer the most robust personalization features. Songza’s Concierge feature lets users select the time of day, day of the week, current activity, mood, energy/concentration needs, and genre preferences to hone in on the perfect set for the occasion. Telling Songza you’re at work will get you a largely instrumental set — more conducive to sustaining focus — while telling the app you’re pre-gaming with friends on a Friday evening will get you a custom mix of dance and pop songs to put you in party mode.

iHeartRadio is a free digital radio that lets users listen to their favorite live stations and create ad-free custom stations. Users can access more than 1,500 live radio stations from across the country, with genres including pop, country, urban, rock, talk, and college. Users can also browse radio stations by genre and location, then tap the scan button to navigate from station to station. A thumbs-up/thumbs-down rating system also lets users send feedback to DJs on which tracks are trending.

Slacker offers users hundreds of stations curated by human music experts. Popular stations include “Music Festivals,” as well as custom stations based on user-selected artists. Users can personalize their stations with continuous fine-tuning based on likes and bans on songs and artists.

With a sleek user interface, flexible pricing, and access to more than 20 million songs, Spotify is one of the leading apps of the post-Pandora era. The Spotify mobile app lets you shuffle any artist or album for free, while the tablet and computer versions give users unlimited, ad-supported access to music. Recently added browsing capabilities make it easier than ever to find playlists, and Spotify Premium enables unlimited offline listening and ad-free streaming on mobile.

At OysterLabs, we collaborate with our clients as partners, brought together for a common goal - to grow their business through informed, strategic mobile entry. While we design and build mobile apps and platforms, we always keep in mind how mobile can empower their customers and workforce.

Originally published on Social Media Today, below is my recap of the first panel of SXSWi 2014, which speaks to the importance of having your internal team adopt critical tools and behaviors to help evangelize your brand.

SXSW Interactive started with a bang thanks to Social Media Today’s #SocBizShakeUp breakfast event at the W Austin.

On building a socially-engaged workforce:Companies have to adapt to the change that has happened. There is huge potential for B2B when social becomes a key element of the sales funnel – they turn more digital. 60% of sales funnels are taking place in the digital place.

It takes four elements to get a socially-engaged workforce:

(1) access(2) training(3) creating an environment (of content provided by the company where employees can start commenting, sharing and build an ecosystem)(4) starting at the top and getting CEO engagement

On the importance of leadership taking part:

Enable top management: other employees will see them as an example and adopt their behavior. Avoid having a middle manager who doesn’t understand social relationships and tools.

On the importance of big data:

Does the corporation actually want to listen to this data? There are often many opinions, but if you ritualize learning from data, it fundamentally changes how decisions are made.

Sandy Carter, General Manager, Ecosystems & Social Business Evangelism at IBM (@Sandy_Carter)

On building a socially-engaged workforce:

Make your own employees socially-capable - create a digital brand army to represent your company and brand.

“You really can’t engage your customers if you don’t have engaged employees. IBM has approached it from a people perspective – social doesn’t change your culture, it reveals it. We embed it as part of our business process.”

On the intersection of big data and social:

I am fascinated by how we use and distribute the data. In our research division we’ve been looking at social profiles and we can assess 52 different personality traits based on tweets – that enables us to understand what consumers value. IBM ran 500,000 people through this process and really nailed personality and values. Instead of looking at what consumers bought previously, you can assess personality traits and leverage the data in a different way. It gives you a 40-45% higher likelihood that cross-selling and up-selling will work. This will change the way companies sell, recommend, and even assign employees to tasks.

My IBM SystemU Assessment from SXSW 2014

On innovation of internal tools to drive a socially-engaged workforce:

BlueTube (IBM’s internal take on YouTube) is used to learn and train employees. Digital IBMer helps build the digital eminence of all IBMers - IBM wants employees to be socially-engaged and out in the blogosphere.

On the importance of social influence data:

Klout score will become the new SAT score as social influence becomes increasingly more important. IBM has its own internal version of Klout for employees to be rated by. IBM worked with MIT and found that an employee who is connected socially (with a potential client or executive) brings in anywhere from $700-$1700 of added value.

On the next big data trend:

Here at SXSW, IBM’s Watson Food truck makes culinary recommendations based on personal preference data. Health care is a great example of cognitive technology insight – for example, Watson can consume all that data, then advise a doctor on the right potential treatment based on data. This translates to retail, as Watson thinks about how you want to shop and makes smart recommendations.Cognitive technology is the next big data trend.

Social needs to be integrated into employees’ everyday lives, so it’s not disruptive and makes sense for the flow of their day. With 600+ social media accounts and 1000+ employees creating social content for Whole Foods, social is our culture. The best marketing we have are team members on the floor, talking to our customers.

On cohesion amongst customers and their values:

We are so mission-driven, this is part of everything we do. We have a shared value set with our customers; some customers connect on sustainability, some love great food experiences – so we now ask, how do we filter that down to the local level? The things that are important to customers downtown versus in suburbia are different – we need to teach our local stores what those customers care about. We’re looking at hyper local analytics, which help drive conversations. Social gives us the broader insight.

Paying for promoted tweets and holding that up as brand isn’t taking advantage of what social is. MasterCard has built an ecosystem, in 42 markets and 26 languages, that is entirely tied to social insights. Rather than standardizing buzz metrics, the conversation should center around trend and insight. Tell me something that helps my business – focus on how social and digital shapes the P&L.

On inspiring employees around a mission:

MasterCard is a technology company – we’re an enabler of payments worldwide. You have to give people a reason to believe, rally and be empowered. We want to continually encourage our 7,200 employees around the world. IBM’s Smarter Planet is one of the best social programs ever done.

On brands understanding what social really means:

Brands have a self-inflated sense that people want to hear from us and we know what they want to talk about. If you use big data to know what people want to engage in, you’re informed, rather than guessing. I’m a big advocate of curated content - 70% of our content is curated, which is how we authentically connect and participate with our customers.

Upon adopting this approach, we saw a 400% increase in engagement, had over 200 direct conversations, which created 500,000 unique conversation streams over time. Our addressable audience is 1.2 billion people. We’ve moved away from content pollution and now we’re earning trust; we see the data and build a story that is compelling and ultimately helps our business goals.

It wasn’t that long ago that many restaurant franchises did without a website. In the age of phone ordering, drive-throughs, and dining out a web presence wasn’t a must for every chain. Nowadays, just about every major food service brand recognizes the importance of having a desktop and mobile presence, but not all are convinced of the need for a mobile app. Many assume that as long as they are searchable on desktop and mobile, customers won’t face ordering constraints and sales won’t suffer. But here are five reasons why that thinking is beginning to change:

1. Brand Building

A recent study shows that 95% of independent restaurants lack mobile sites and only 40% have online menus. Modern mobile services such as Yelp, Seamless, GrubHub, and MenuPages have helped to simulate a mobile presence for restaurants such as these, allowing customers to search, place orders, and save purchasing information all via mobile web or app. But restaurants that continue to rely on these services to drive mobile business are ignoring a huge piece of the equation: brand perception. Most consumers intuitively understand why new, small, and non-franchise restaurants tend not to have their own apps. But when it comes to larger restaurant brands, consumers expect a proprietary experience in line with what they get when visiting a physical storefront.

If you’ve ever bought products from Apple or BestBuy, ask yourself how your perception of those brands would change if you were suddenly forced to interact with them through a third-party service such as Amazon or Overstock. The effect would likely be negative. A brand’s marketing and sales funnel ought to be just as proprietary as the products it is selling, which means that restaurants must be mindful of the brand dilution effects when customers are forced to interact through a third-party service. Mobile apps address this by creating a custom brand experience and communication channel on each user’s device, so that mobile interaction can be kept in sync with the brand’s guiding objectives.

2. Custom Content

Every brand has its own unique lineup of products and promotions. In the restaurant industry these are housed within the menu. Successful brands in every industry put a lot of thought into the presentation and packaging of their products, and restaurants should be no different. Since each restaurant has its own set of products and custom content, it’s critical to present product offerings to customers in a brand-specific way rather than relying on external services that may distort or misrepresent that information.

3. Social Engagement

There’s an old saying in the restaurant industry that good business means having repeat customers. In truth that’s only half the puzzle; a restaurant that has just two or three repeat customers most likely isn’t doing very good business, regardless of its per-customer margins. The real key is to have a large and continuously growing base of repeat customers. In today’s social media-driven world, that means enabling customers to talk about brands in easy, fun, and brand-specific ways on their mobile devices. Even the most enthusiastic customer typically won’t take it upon herself to start a discussion about a brand, but a well-executed mobile app can turn that issue into an advantage.

With integrated functionality from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other popular social services, mobile apps can subtly encourage customers to share favorite meals, store locations, deals, and more. This type of behavior becomes a non-intrusive part of the brand experience and contributes to the social “snowball effect,” in which a brand can expand its user base increasingly quickly over time through social activity that is tied into the mobile experience.

4. Audience Targeting

These days, everyone is on the go. Deals and promotions have long been a staple marketing tactic for restaurants, but we live in an age in which it’s not good enough just to reach customers; brands need to reach customers at the right time and place. Consider the difference between the following scenarios: 1) Restaurant X sends a promotion to Jane’s mobile device when she is sitting at home on her couch, versus 2) Restaurant Y sends Jane a promotion when she is driving her kids home from school past one of their storefronts. Most people would agree that Restaurant Y has a better chance of winning Jane’s business. Why? Because Jane is in a better position to buy when she receives Restaurant Y’s offer.

New mobile marketing solutions such as OysterLabs’ AQUA facilitate precision geo-targeting and campaign scheduling to ensure that offers reach customers where and when they are most likely to engage. Boosting sales is about maximizing the conversion probability of each customer, and those results can only be achieved with a custom mobile app supported by a campaign-ready CRM tool with built-in geo-targeting and scheduling capabilities.

5. Customer Loyalty

If the restaurant industry didn’t coin the phrase, “Keep them coming back for more,” then it’s certainly an apt description of every restaurant’s objective. Loyalty cards, coupons, and rewards have long been the linchpin of customer loyalty, but nowadays consumers expect to interact with their favorite brands through their mobile devices and without having to keep track of physical media. Delivering loyalty offers to customers on mobile not only enhances the appeal of the brand but also encourages repeat business by offering tangible rewards for future purchases.

Mobile loyalty offers can also help restaurant brands convert low or zero-revenue segments of their audience into customers. Social media enables just about anyone to follow and promote a brand, but those users may not all be making purchases or otherwise contributing to revenue.

A well-executed mobile loyalty program can convert a user’s social currency into brand currency, which in turn can allow brands to turn social supporters into revenue-generating customers.

Mobile strategy in the restaurant industry is in its infancy stage. Many restaurants are slow to adapt to the changing tide of mobile innovation. Yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel - a few restaurants, in an effort to distance themselves from the competition and gain an edge, have taken to developing unique and sophisticated mobile apps that increase consumer traffic and drive revenue. Straying away from the simple apps used by the majority of venues, which include basic information like a menu, locations, and nutritional information, these brands have apps that incorporate innovative and remarkable features. I’ve outlined just a few apps that fall into this category and what they’re doing to separate themselves from the crowd.

As of 2014, 35% of restaurant apps include an ordering option. In Q3 2013, digital sales were 40% of Domino Pizza’s revenue and their mobile app had over 10 million downloads. Papa John’s saw more than 45% of all orders come from digital. The ordering options on these apps are easy, simple, and efficient. Loyalty sections of a restaurant app have also shown huge success. Starbucks’ app rewards its 10 million users with free coffee and food once they hit a certain number of purchases. This helps generate their 4 million transactions per week.

The final piece integrated into some of the best restaurant mobile apps is location based marketing. Research showed that 38% of consumers in the United States have used a mobile coupon to purchase an in-store product. Quizno’s location-based campaigned netted a 20% increase in redemption. Outback Steakhouse geo-conquests their competitors by geo-fencing them and sending ads to those locations. A sneaky little trick but it seems to work.

These are a few of the ingredients for a terrific mobile app in the restaurant industry. As for the future, I’m guessing we will see more and more restaurants contribute to the innovation.

How messaging apps like Whatsapp are changing the Mobile Marketing Landscape

Since Facebook’s $19B acquisition of Whatsapp last week there has been increased speculation about the role of messaging services in allowing brands to expand their marketing reach. Shortly after Facebook announced the deal, the Japanese online retailer, Rakuten, said that it would be buying Viber — an internet calling service similar to Skype that reports close to 300 million users — for $900M. Meanwhile, WeChat, a Chinese-based messaging service, is also said to be closing in on 300 million users and may become the next major acquisition target.

Deals such as these signal the potential for messaging appsto evolve into platforms with continuously monetizable users. Whatsapp serves some 500 million users, mostly in emerging markets, roughly 70% of whom use the app on a daily basis. A recent report from Deloitte predicts that in 2014 an average of 50 billion messages will be delivered each day across these types of messaging services. For many brands, such numbers indicate the opportunity to reach a global audience with immediacy and precision.

For Facebook, the Whatsapp deal will help to cement the company’s involvement with messaging and voice calling. But it may also help Facebook attract interest from advertisers looking to make inroads with consumers in emerging markets. Facebook has struggled to gain traction in Asia against a lineup of competitor networks, but with the acquisition of a half billion active users there it can now focus on boosting mobile user activity in Asian markets, which may enable the company to start charging advertisers more aggressive rates without stifling demand. Plus, with the unique demographic-targeting options that Facebook offers, the company may be primed to gain a competitive advantage as a distribution platform.

The gain in users may also allow Facebook to start bringing revenue into line with investor expectations. Since its 2012 public debut the social networking giant’s price-earnings ratio has hovered above 100, indicating a discrepancy between the company’s perceived worth and current earnings. But such an influx of users in high-interest markets may help to boost advertiser interest and earnings.

The rise of Whatsapp and other messaging apps may also underscore a key feature of the new marketing landscape: with the explosion of smartphone and tablet usage across the globe, brands need tools that provide both precision and reach on mobile. Marketers increasingly gauge ROI in terms of the ability to reach mobile audiences with strategic timing and differentiated messaging, both of which Facebook is now better equipped to provide. OysterLabs’ AQUA – a combined mobile CRM+Analytics platform – offers such capabilities at highly competitive rates, and is a critical tool in the arsenal of any mobile marketer.

Let’s face it: picking up the phone and ordering a pizza is just too energy consuming. We want a way to order food that’s easy…and calling a restaurant is just too damn hard. Mary wrote about the On-Demand Delivery trend earlier this week - and now I share one of my favorite examples, the Domino’s Pizza app, which makes ordering effortless.

That’s a lot of Pizza

As of January 2014, the Domino’s Pizza app has over ten million downloads with 2013 digital sales amounting to $1.3 billion. In Q3 last year, digital sales were 40% of Domino’s revenue.

It’s just so simple. The quick process lets you choose your location, customize your order, and checkout. With the addition of “pizza profiles,” you can store your information and recent food order, which makes the process even shorter. If you’re a returning customer, you don’t need more than 30 seconds to order your food. And then there’s the Domino’s tracker, which lets you track the order through the entire delivery process. Pretty cool stuff!

Similar to Starbucks, the Domino’s app is a call-to-action for innovation across the industry. Restaurants need to see the success of the Domino’s app and adapt to the changing tide. Mobile is here; embrace it.

As much as we may scowl at the likes of Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we live in an instant-gratification society - specifically if you live in a highly-populated urban environment (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles). You’re probably familiar with this way of living - you want it now, and you’ll pay for instant convenience.

I’ve rounded up a few of my favorite companies in the On-Demand Delivery space - which will continue to explode in 2014. Tweet to me @MaryEliseChavez and share yours!

With $258MM of funding from Google Ventures, many have said Uber is the early winner in the on-demand transport space. However, this space is hot and quickly evolving, check out some other companies entering at different angles.

My use of Seamless hit a low when I ordered a cupcake from a shop… beneath my apartment. You see, I was in a House of Cards binge-fest and couldn’t be bothered to walk downstairs. 15 minutes later I was enjoying my Chai cupcake while gasping at the cunning of The Underwoods.

But I’m not the only one, friends have shared their stories of delivery indulgence - like my friend that orders from her local french bistro before dinner parties and plays it off as “culinary talent.”

The convenience of any-time, anything food delivery is a luxury many urbanites rely on.

An honorable mention in the on-demand food space goes to Instacart, which deliveries groceries in 1 hour- my cousin lives in San Francisco and loves this service - can’t wait for it to come to New York!

Need delivery in under 1 hour for anything - from food to cosmetics, books to an errand you don’t have time for - check out Postmates. With real-time tracking you can see the status of your delivery. Pricing starts at $5 and is based on distance of delivery.

Finally available in Brooklyn, WunWun (what you need, when you need it) is a similar concept to Postmates - delivery of anything at anytime. WunWun has partnerships with a sampling of brands (e.g. a 2013 promotion with men’s skincare brandAnthony for Men), the retailer absorbs the cost of delivery, to enhance the customer experience.

Mega-retailers Amazon and Ebay Now (encourages shopping locally but has partnered with Best Buy and Target and is $5/per order) offer select merchandise for delivery. They have their own strategies and operations in place for on-demand and time sensitive deliveries - stay tuned for who comes out on top.

Final Thoughts:The winners will out perform with gold-star customer service.

Nearly my entire life (personally and professionally) is organized with help from this brilliant tool. Its easy-to-use interface - both on desktop and mobile helps tackle large projects by breaking them down into a task-by-task approach - eliminating the overwhelming feeling of “there’s-so-much-to-do-where-do-i-start” conundrum!

As a big fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, Asana has helped me increase focus and productivity. I've evangelized the benefits of Asana for years to friends and colleagues - I love seeing how Asana helps them achieve their goals. Great for teams too - both as a collaborative tool and a roadmap planning tool.

It skims my contact list to pull in details about my appointment - for example, say I’m having “Dinner w/ Jen at DBGB”, it will recommend the Jen’s I know and give me directions to DBGB - this is particularly helpful when meeting up with clients - as related emails, documents and their LinkedIn profiles are pulled in (awesome!).

In any given day we see 100’s (sometimes 1000’s) of media messages - from that hilarious Buzzfeed listicle that’s all over Facebook, to the latest staggering startup valuation that raised eyebrows (I’m talking to you Snapchat & What’s App) - digesting so much media can be daunting.

Enter Pocket. With a handy browser plugin and smart recognition of links (right click on a link and you can ‘Save to Pocket’), I can collect inspiration and news as articles, videos, photo tutorials and blogs to a central place with easy tagging - that way, I can read content when I’m ready, rather than disrupting my workflow or hanging with friends.

During my commute I dig around in my Pocket app, and typically read 8-10 articles in 30 minutes, which is a great way to get in my daily dosage of reading.

8x8 offers a great virtual office setup - working seamlessly between desktop phone > computer > mobile. OysterLabs is HQ'ed in New York, with international offices in Moscow and Ukraine - 8x8 is super helpful with conference calls, shared-screen meetings and messaging for our teams around the world.

OysterLabs works with global brands that have audiences all over the world. Instagram is a powerful tool for businesses to visualize the culture and lifestyle of their brand. On any given day, I’m tracking efforts and social content to see trends and steer my clients down the right track.

Music is proven to improve productivity, stimulate creativity and make us overall better people. Songza is my go-to music app whether getting ready in the morning, working deep on a design project or getting my fitness on.

With a scenario-based music concierge, Songza serves up curated playlists from their music experts (you can create your own too), to align with your Mood, Time of Day or Activity.

Whether you’re a Fortune-100 brand or a one-person business, choosing which platforms your mobile app will support can be a confusing process. The past few years have seen the rise of Windows and Blackberry app markets, but for most businesses looking to build a mobile presence the choice comes down to the two major platforms: Android and iOS.

“Am I crazy, or is it madness to release mobile apps with no support for Android devices now? And to have no plans to ever support them?”

The question is a good one since many businesses out there are wondering the same thing. My reply was: “Yes it’s madness.”

To clarify: if you are just breaking into mobile, it may not be madness to begin by only supporting iOS even though it controls just 15% of the global market as compared to Android’s 78%. But to rule out Android support completely is to ignore a huge potential source of users and revenue.

The key question to ask yourself is how much you plan to charge for your app. Despite Android’s huge lead in global market share, Apple pulls in an estimated $5.1M a day in App Store revenue, compared to Google’s daily $1.1M from Google Play. That means that the average iOS user spends roughly 25x as much on apps (and in-app purchases) as the average Android user. So if you plan to release a paid app, it may make sense to start by allocating your development resources to a quality iOS release rather than splitting your budget between parallel iOS and Android builds.

At OysterLabs we’ve worked with many clients who went that route and then re-invested a portion of their iOS app earnings into a follow-up Android release. For cash-strapped businesses and startups in particular, this is a time-tested approach that may not yield huge revenue right off the bat but almost certainly won’t break the bank.

Not everyone is interested in the paid app model, though. Businesses whose apps rely on in-app purchases, ads, and/or incentivized downloads for revenue may see Android as the priority platform given its much larger user base. If your app’s revenue model relies on many users downloading and using your app – what industry insiders sometimes call “eyeball potential” – then it makes sense to prioritize support for the platform with more users.

But that raises a secondary question about how to get those eyeballs focused on your app. Big brands can rely on their marketing budgets to drive installs and impressions, but less well-endowed developers often must resort to clever usage of social media and paid distribution channels. Google Play offers an advantage to the small guys here with its superior search capabilities that enable users to find apps even when they misspell keywords.

Final Thoughts

Your decision-making about mobile platform support should be driven by your app’s revenue model and available budget for development and distribution. The ideal scenario is to support both iOS and Android, but that may not be a reality for every business at the start.

If you’re thinking about developing an app, give us a shout at Hello@OysterLabs.com and we’ll help you develop a mobile strategy that meets your business’ goals and requirements.

Something’s brewing in the NBA between Sacramento Kings owner, Vivek Ranadive, and Dallas Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban. No, it’s not about King James and the MVP Race or David Stern’s retirement. Believe it or not, they’re bickering about the use of mobile technology during live NBA games.

Ranadive, who purchased the Kings in May 2013, believes that mobile will enhance the experience of being in an arena during a live NBA game. He noted,

“The future is about giving people an extremely contextual experience…people love to play games and they love to participate.”

Ranadive believes an in-game app, like the one at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, enhances the experience, rather than disrupts it. The Barclays Center’s new mobile Wi-Fi system allows fans to access game information, with future versions including the ability to order concessions from your phone. Ranadive said,

“I completely reject the notion that a fan looking at his mobile device is not an engaged fan…I want to know play-by-play, I want to know every metric.”

On the other side of this debate is longtime Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban. Cuban wants nothing more than to see fans put their phones away and become immersed in the game. Cuban said,

“No question people use their phones and devices at games…but they use them when they are bored. They don’t want more reasons to use them. They want fewer.”

A new study on stadium Wi-Fi habits, commissioned by the NFL, discovered that the busiest period of mobile use during a game comes at the beginning and mobile use slowly decreases during the game. Most of that mobile activity is not looking at the play-by-play or statistics; rather, it’s photo uploading through Facebook. Maybe Cuban is right. But then again, mobile apps catered to the in-game experience are not widely available yet and the lack of in-game use may be due to a lack of availability.

I do know that when I’m at home, watching the game, I’m using multiple devices at the same time. But, when I’m at a live NBA game, I rarely take my phone out. Why would I? I just paid a ridiculous price for a ticket.

Final ThoughtsIn reality, both owners are right. NBA fans are a diverse group of people. Some would love the extra features of being able to look up stats and figures related to the game. Others would find it distracting, and would prefer to keep the phone in their pocket. The real key here is giving those fans who prefer the mobile experience, a great app that meets their needs. Cuban needs to step into the 21st century and reach out to Mavericks fans that fall into this group.

Regardless, I’m a Knicks fan; so I’d rather not look at the game anyway…

The forefront of the mobile revolution is taking place on the corner of your street, at your friendly, neighborhood coffee shop: Starbucks. Business Insider reported recently that Starbucks has racked in more than $1 billion in 2013 from its mobile sales, a figure that can be attributed to its ten million active users.

The staggering results from their mobile strategy come from multiple pioneering marketing campaigns during Q4 of 2013. Their Twitter campaign—aptly named “Tweet-a-Coffee”—lets coffee lovers tweet a hashtag that’s linked to a credit card, and friends and family can redeem them through the Starbucks mobile app.

Starbucks patrons can use the app for card payments and direct purchasing of beverages and food. Once downloaded, users can unlock free drinks and food after reaching a certain number of purchases in the app. The app is very much like a game. It’s fun, it’s unique, it’s interactive, and it’s convenient.

I write about this app because…well…I use it—almost everyday, actually. No other eCommerce app has done what Starbucks has done, which is, quite simply, create an app that’s habit forming. Every morning I go into Starbucks and without thinking, take out my phone, not my wallet.

Starbucks’ newest mobile venture will come in the form of pre-ordering on your phone. They want to change the ever-growing line at it’s locations by allowing costumers to order and pay from the app upon arrival or beforehand.

Starbucks continues to be at the forefront of mobile innovation and I implore all of you to download the app, even if you aren’t a fan of the brand. Flip through it, study it, and ponder what the future of mobile may look like. The Starbucks app is a wonderful case study of how mobile can positively impact overall brand strategy.

I’ll leave you with a quote on Starbucks innovation…

And I think once again the Starbucks… mobile transaction platform is still in its nascent stage. And we believe there is an opportunity to extend that value to our customers in ways that we have not yet shared with you.